J.J. Abrams is working on a deal to produce a feature film version of Colum McCann's award-winning novel "Let the Great World Spin" at Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot, says The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the site: J.J. Abrams is working out a rights deal to spin a feature from McCann's sprawling period piece. Abrams would produce, with McCann adapting the screenplay, at Paramount, where his production company, Bad Robot resides.

"Spin” is McCann's fifth novel and was published in June by Random House. The story is built around Philippe Petit's real-life "artistic crime of the century"--when the Frenchman illegally walked a tightrope strung between the World Trade Center towers in August 1974. The event was covered in the award-winning documentary "Man on Wire" in 2008.

It follows an ensemble cast of characters struggling throughout New York including a young Irish monk living among prostitutes in the Bronx; a group of mothers mourning their sons, killed in Vietnam, in a Park Avenue apartment; and a 38-year-old grandmother walking the streets with her teenage daughter.

The project is a departure from Abrams more recent work such as “Fringe” and “Star Trek,” which are in the science fiction genre. It more closely resembles his early work on the television show “Felicity,” which also was set in New York City. It is unclear exactly what role Abrams will have or if he will direct the project.